About the author

Su Song, courtesy name Zirong, was a scholar-official of the Northern Song dynasty who made notable contributions to pharmacology and natural history. The library holds one work by him, Bencao Tujing (Illustrated Pharmacopoeia), commonly classified under medicine and health. The book systematically organizes medicinal substances by name, properties, place of origin, and use, and includes illustrations to aid identification and reference, making it an important Song-era pharmacopoeia. Su Song's scholarship emphasized evidence and orderly arrangement; his writing is rigorous and plain, with attention to classification and the pairing of text and image so that complex pharmacological knowledge could be more easily consulted and used. Because public information is limited, details of his life and career are not elaborated here. His surviving work alone shows that he played a transitional role in the compilation of materia medica and documentary scholarship, exerting a lasting influence on later pharmacological and natural-historical research.

Written (1)

Publishers

安徽科学技术出版社